While amended measures to extend the Patriot Act were approved Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee , Senators introduced their own bipartisan bill setting restrictions and time limits. SB 1389, introduced by Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) would provide for increased reporting of how the act is used, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Wednesday upheld a lower court decision that Microsoft Corp. was liable for infringing on an AT&T Corp. patent for converting speech into computer code in copies of Windows operating system sold abroad. The Court said that the software giant had distributed codec technology, used to compress [...]

As UN General Assembly debate continued Wednesday on a proposed expansion of the UN Security Council, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan weighed in on the general proposition, telling reporters, "The council can be more democratic and more representative." The US supports expansion in principle , but is opposed the so-called G-4 plan , which would [...]

UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke on Thursday ordered an immediate review of his exclusion and deportation powers. The move in the wake of the London bombings comes after British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that his government would tighten border controls to keep out individuals preaching religious hatred and would take steps to deport [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday signed a decree handing control of the country's prisons over to the Russian Ministry of Justice . The move comes in response to pressure from the Council of Europe , which made such prison reforms a condition of Russian membership in the group in 1996. The country's security services previously [...]

Chile's Senate on Wednesday passed reforms to the country's constitution put in place by former dictator Augusto Pinochet that reduce the presidential term to four years from six and limit military build-up. Sen. Sergio Fernandez, who worked as a co-author to the 25-year-old Constitution, called the changes "an important step that will allow for . [...]

The US on Wednesday unveiled a draft of a UN Security Council resolution that would more clearly define associations with groups such as al Qaeda and the Taliban. Currently, sanctions impose weapons and travel bans along with asset freezes on individuals or groups "associated" with them. The US resolution would target those who "participate in [...]

Sunni clerics complained of more rights abuses by Iraq's mostly-Shiite security forces in Iraq on Wednesday, further complicating efforts to encourage Sunni participation in Iraq's political process. The bodies of 11 Sunni men – including one cleric – were found on Wednesday after they were rounded up police and allegedly tortured, just three days after [...]

Russia has demanded the extradition from the United States of Leonid Nevzlin , a former Yukos executive and majority shareholder accused of ordering murders. Nevzlin now lives in exile in Israel, but was in the US Wednesday to address the Helsinki Commission to discuss how the scandal and eventual conviction of former Yukos CEO Mikhail [...]

A military investigator appearing Wednesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee told lawmakers that certain terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay were degraded and abused by interrogators, but not tortured. Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt , charged with investigating abuse allegations made by FBI agents at Guantanamo, testified and presented a report to the committee [...]